Click here to see "which Sunday" it is (The Proper of Seasons for the Latin Mass).

Monday, January 29, 2007

Latin Mass Not Going to HappenPapal insider says Pope won’t do it

Fr. Reginald Foster, a Carmelite friar and the Latin master for the Vatican, says reports that Pope Benedict will reintroduce the Tridentine Mass, were wrong.

A native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (no word if he’s chums with Cream City’s former ordinary Bishop (ugh) Rembert Weakhand), Fr. Foster was appointed the Papal Latinist 38 years ago by Pope Paul VI.

He said the Pope won’t do it, not least because of the Pope's desire to avoid more controversies. A speech last year offended Muslims and more recently he gave initial support to a Polish archbishop who was eventually forced to resign, after admitting he had collaborated with the Commie secret police.

"He is not going to do it," Fr. Foster said. "He had trouble with Regensberg, and then trouble in Warsaw, and if he does this, all hell will break loose." In any case, he added: "It is a useless Mass and the whole mentality is stupid. The idea of it is that things were better in the old days. It makes the Vatican look medieval."

If true, this is shocking news. We had word last fall that the Pope had, in fact, signed the motu propio granting universal use of the traditional Latin Mass and the only hold-up was waiting for it to be translated into the foreign languages. (Funny, that was never a problem when the whole Catholic hierarchy spoke, or at least read and wrote Latin!)

If true, it is additionally shocking to hear that the Pope who was known as Ratzinger the Rottweiler is now only a toothless, if not castrated, version of his old self. So much for leadership. So much for swinging Peter’s keys and showing everyone what first among equals means.

On the other hand, knowing of the Pope’s concern for improving the liturgy, his love for Latin, and earlier remarks from Cardinal Arinze about the Latin Mass, it is a little hard for me to put much credence in a statement by a priest who calls any Mass “useless” and calls “stupid” the idea of encouraging a 1,500-year-old rite that has NEVER been banned or abrogated.

(The only thing stopping any priest who knows the traditional Mass from saying it publicly right now it his, usually cowardly or modernist, bishop.)

This must really be news to Bishop Fellay of SSPX who was also under the impression, as stated publicly, that the Pope was going to grant a universal indult for the traditional Mass.

I told my girlfriend about this article, and she said "it sounds like Fr. Foster was having a bad day." I think I agree: a priest and a Latinist proclaiming that Latin is "officially dead" at the Vatican and calling the Tridentine Mass "useless" does not sound reasonable. Either he has been misquoted, the statement has been edited poorly, or he was in a really bad mood that day.

I sort of think it might have been meant to say "a useless mess"...that is, the mess that would be caused by a universal indult would be useless, and not have a good effect on the Church. A statement I strongly disagree with, but at least one that doesn't impugn the mass that existed for almost all western Catholics for so many centuries as worthless.

A watched pot never boils. This maxim applies to the long-awaited indult. The Latinist has no more information about these things than we do. I trust the Holy Father to do the right thing. He does not suffer from castration or imbicility. He is the successor of Peter. He will take care of this issue in its own time.

Rorate Caeli has already dealt with with and put it into perspective. Read the post there and all of the comments.

"If true, it is additionally shocking to hear that the Pope who was known as Ratzinger the Rottweiler is now only a toothless, if not castrated, version of his old self."

This is also, possibly, a total mischaracterization of the Holy Father: Just after he was elected, I read an article (can't recall by whom or where) that claimed in all his years at the CDF only twenty (20) people, of various ranks, were ever disciplined to any degree; the writer said this amounted to less than 1 per year, which, given the anarchy in the Church, does not seem like behaviour consistent with the so-called reputation. I fear this reputation is not based in fact, but is a. the product of the media-Church left, and b. those Catholics who really wish he was a roughie-toughie and have, actually, taken their cue from the self-same media, e.g. "well if THEY say he is, then he must be."

Reginald Foster is probably the world's foremost lover of Latin. He has held summer seminars in Latin for years, for free. Most pro-Latin people hold him in high regard. I can't imagine him calling any mass stupid, let alone one in Latin....

I hear (from a source taught by Fr Foster) that he's truly a great teacher, and a brilliant Latinist, but he's an elderly liberal and off his trolley, and would hardly be expected to say anything else...

This guy ought to spend some time back home. All Seminarians from the Madison Diocese and the LaCrosse Diocese learn an heck of a lot of Latin, I think they are studying it in some way shape or form for like 7 years up to ordination. I think this is a growing trend and I'll bet the percent of seminarians studying Latin today is the highest it's been at since the early 70's, in the US anyway.

These clergy get sent to Europe and it's all doom and gloom, maybe Churchmen from France and Germany aren't learning Latin anymore but in the US it is on the up and up.

I had heard some good things about Fr. Foster in the past, I am very saddend to hear him speak so badly of the Mass of Pope St. Pius V. How could a guy who should have an appreciation for the beauty of the language speak so harshly of the language being expressed in it's most beautiful form of all, in reverence to Our Lord?

If the Pope backed down on this due to the Muslim controversy, I am very sorry, as far as I can tell thus far, that speech may be remembered as his finnest hour. With a few remarks the Papacy had resumed it's role as the voice of Western Civilization (whether the secularists like it or not!)

We need to all pray that the Pope will fine the courage to stick to his guns.